Reason to Believe

Abstract

In this paper we study the relation between nonmonotonic reasoning and belief revision. Our main conceptual contribution is to suggest that nonmonotonic reasoning guides but does not determine an agent’s belief revision. To be adopted as beliefs, defeasible conclusions should remain stable in the face of certain bodies of information. This proposal is formalized in what we call a two-tier semantics for nonmonotonic reasoning and belief revision. The main technical result is a sound and complete axiomatization for this semantic.